Friday's Prep Basketball: Box Elder one win away; Ponies still alive

The Box Elder Bears are playing for a state championship Saturday night. No, not the boys, the Box Elder girls. On Friday night in Great Falls, the Bears reached their first Class C state championship game in 18 years when they beat Arlee 65-60. A familiar foe awaits the Bears in the championship tilt, as they will battle Northern C champion Belt.

Friday night's semifinal was tough, as Box Elder watched a big halftime lead slip away. But, Jude The Boy hit some key shots down the stretch, and the Bears did enough defensively to hang on, and go to the title game for the first time since they won the 1998 state championship.

The Boy led four Bears in double figures with 16 points. Tia Russell and Tyrah Gopher each scored 14 and Alyssa LaMere added 12.

Now Box Elder gets another shot at Jeff Graham's Huskies, who throttled Seeley-Swan in the other semifinal Friday. Belt beat Box Elder by 16 points two weeks ago in Great Falls, and Box Elder (25-1) head coach Joel Rosette said his Bears will have to adjust to play with the Huskies Saturday night.

"We've been thinking about that for two weeks," Rosette said. "We've been working on a few things. I think we'll be ready for them."

Meanwhile, at the Class A state tournament in Belgrade, the Havre Blue Ponies got a scare from the Frenchtown Broncs in a loser-out contest Friday afternoon. But, a Naomi Terry with two minutes to play lifted Havre to its first lead of the game, and a 44-40 victory.

The Broncs raced out to a 15-6 lead, but slowly, Havre chipped away, as big shots from Terry and Marca Herron, as well as a timely triple in the fourth quarter by Ryen Olson, helped stem to the tide.

"I was so proud of our kids off the bench," Dustin Kraske said. "Here they (the starters) were sitting on the bench in foul trouble and those youngsters got in the game and that's how we came back."

Havre was in foul trouble for much of the game, but Dani Wagner still managed 14 points, while Terry added 11.

The Ponies will now look to reach the consolation game when they play Dillon Saturday morning in a loser-out contest. The championship game will feature Columbia Falls and Butte Central.

For full coverage, see Monday's Havre Daily News.